Category Archives: Cool Projects

Narrelle M Harris on Patreon

In December 2017 I began a Patreon account to help fund my fiction writing.

My first Patreon project is to re-release my first book, made up of two novellas – Fly By Night and Sacrifice – as a novella series under the banner, Duo Ex Machina.

The Duo Ex Machina series is about Frank Capriano and Milo Bertolone, loving couple and members of the two-man band, Duo Ex Machina, and their infrequent and unpleasant encounters with crime.

Fly By Night

My first Patreon target has been achieved – I’ve re-edited and re-released Fly By Night with a beautiful new cover by Willsin Rowe.

Sacrifice is being edited and posted as fortnightly chapters to my supporters, and will be released to them as a complete e-book in due course.

I’ll be writing three more e-books in the series: Number One Fan, Kiss & Cry, and Little Star, each set in years and decades following the first two novellas, set in 1999 and 2004 respectively.

Your Patreon pledges will allow me to make time to write these three new novellas, as well as paying Willsin Rowe for new cover art and formatting of the final stories for mobi and epub versions.

I’ll also be collecting a number of other short stories and writing new ones for free story collection, Scar Tissue and Other Stories, when I reach my initial income goal of $100 a month.

I aim to give my backers value for money, so there’ll be posts about Melbourne (where most of the stories will be set), my inspirations, sneak peaks of other works in progress, bits of other writing and writing tutorials (depending on which tier you support).

Stay tuned for the new cover images and new releases, or support me on Patreon for early access to the stories, other fiction, writing advice and more!

Today is the launch day for Sherlock Holmes: The Australian Casebook – an anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories set in different parts of Australia in 1890.

I was delighted to have an opportunity to write another Holmes story set in Colonial-era Victoria after my Holmes/Watson 1893 romance, The Adventure of the Colonial Boy, and promptly set about using my goldfields research in a more traditional Holmes+Watson tale.

Bonnier Publishing’s blurb on the fully illustrated anthology says:

It’s 1890. Holmes’s fame has spread even to the colonies, and he and his stalwart chronicler Watson are swept up in an array of mysteries Down Under. They find themselves summoned from place to place, dealing with exciting and unique mysteries in every corner of this strange island continent.

My story, “The Mystery of the Miner’s Wife”, begins with Watson in a grumpy mood in a Melbourne coffee palace , but soon Sherlock Holmes and his Boswell are catching the train to Ballarat to solve a peculiar murder. Here’s an extract:

The sergeant’s weary eye lighted first on me, and after an uninterested sniff, on Holmes. He sniffed again. “This is a London detective, is it?” asked the surly fellow. “He doesn’t look much. I’d bet we’ve got detectives twice as good even here in Ballarat, let alone Melbourne or Sydney.”

Holmes’s fine lips quirked in a swiftly suppressed grin. “A betting man, are you?” he challenged in good humour, “What about a wager, then. I’ll tell you a secret about yourself and if I’m right, you’ll fetch Detective Meredith for us. Does that sound fair, Sergeant-?”

“Clark,” smirked the sergeant, “And if you’re wrong?”

“A sovereign, and the boast that you have bested the London detective, Sherlock Holmes.”

My story has a marvellous illustration by Jan Scherpenhuizen, one of three people providing gorgeous images, a la The Strand Magazine, for the anthology. The other two artists are Philip Cornell and Marcelo Baez.

Captivating, engaging, fun, inspiring

Narrelle is an incredibly knowledgeable, articulate and energetic presenter. That coupled with her great sense of humour made for an extremely entertaining evening. Olivia Simaitis, Waurn Ponds Library.
Book Narrelle M Harris as a speaker